Dylan and Physicalists,

“What Next” is a recent letter to the editor I wrote that was published in several newspapers here in western North Carolina. Thought that my emphasis dovetailed with the priorities stated for the new art movement. In any case, hope you enjoy it. Feel free to share it with others and/or use it in any way you wish.

WHAT NEXT?

I want to respond, here, to all the many people who have called, written, and spoken to me in person on the streets these past couple weeks since my editorial on “The End of Eden” came out. The response has been overwhelming. I’m both humbled and encouraged at the same time. People have expressed to me their displeasure and exasperation regarding the current out-of-control development in Jackson County, and the refrain of these recent conversations has been: “What can we do?” While my earlier assessment of the situation was pretty bleak, let me fall back, here, on the old adage of “better late than never.” While most of the large parcels of available land have already been bought up by out-of-state developers (such as the Texas Centex Corp.), and the landscape of Jackson County is being altered and dozed into submission as we speak, we don’t know what the future holds, or what our efforts, now, will mean down the road.

In my piece on “The End of Eden,” I was essentially talking about the big picture by giving examples of how things are being impacted locally. The development issue in Jackson County and the Bear Lake Reserve development are really only symptoms of a larger virus that is plaguing our country, and in fact, our world. In truth, we are living in dark times. I think in the future, people will look back on these days and the days to come and will refer to them as “The Dark Ages.” The real essence of my editorial was about the need for us to begin discussing taboo topics, such as overpopulation, global warming, free-trade capitalism. These are the true issues that are at the heart of what’s wrong in the world. Everything else is just a symptom of these greater “illnesses.”

I’ve never believed in the idea of “evil.” But these days, given the behavior of certain people in government in Washington DC, I’m beginning to rethink my previous position. What I used to see as misguided behavior, more and more, seems to be down-right destructive, and, yes, even evil. In bleak times like these in which we are living, what, then, can we do? To that imposing question, all I can do is to share with you the epiphany I had the other night while eating supper and listening to the evening news. In the midst of a string of depressing stories on Iraq, global warming, the collapse of GM, the privatization of public lands, and corporate raiding, a single thought came to me: Flood the collective human consciousness and senses with all the beauty we can muster! Music, voice, language, literature, architecture, art, advertising, product design… Everything seen and heard. The shadow world of ignorance and greed, while a powerful one, has no defense against beauty. Of this I am convinced. We don’t need to fight fire with fire, or respond in kind to the ways of the wicked and the monetarily possessed. If we just flood the marketplaces, the pages of our papers, the air waves, the museums, the theatres, the shops, the streets, and our minds with beauty, I believe we’ll have a chance to turn things around. It’s a subtle, if not radical approach. But it just may be worth a try.

While this may seem to some a little far-fetched, it’s the best idea I’ve had lately in terms of coming up with some solutions to the issues I brought up in my previous letter. While my focus, here, is global, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t work to be done locally, in terms of encouraging the right people to run for County and City offices (such as William Shelton over in Whittier), in terms of discussing, rationally, the alternatives provided by adopting certain zoning ordinances, and in continuing to support and work with grassroots organizations (where we need more people like Avram Friedman) such as the Canary Coalition and other groups working to protect the air quality in western North Carolina, as well as working to improve education and coming to grips with the problems with our roads. But while acting locally, we must continue to think globally, for what is happening in the big picture affects us all; just as what is happening here in Jackson County affects the rest of the world.

Thomas Crowe

Tuckasegee

Jackson County